UAVs, not just an Air Force gig anymore

[Flash]

After a few short years working for IBM and driving a beamer, living anywhere but havelock will be mighty hard to resist after the weekly a$$ pain of doing more with less.

You want to feel the pain of cost-cutting? Be in a company facing financial troubles, the pain somes downhill hard and fast. You would be turning that Beemer in for a used Corolla real quick.

 

[usmarinemike]

I extoll to the Marine options here quite often about how the virtue of "doing more with less" is one of the hardest things you'll have to do in the Marine Corps, and this thread does a pretty good job with it. I had a good friend check into Pendleton recently and CIF issued him canteens without lids. Explain to me how that makes any fucking sense on any level.

And whoever that was that commented on our budget being smaller because we're wanted and not needed, it's good that you've been reading First To Fight by LtGen Krulak as has been ordered by CMC. I agree with you completely.

 

[snake020]

I had a good friend check into Pendleton recently and CIF issued him canteens without lids.

That is straight out of the first case study from this book

The case study can be found here on pages 26-27 for those who don't know what I'm referring to.

 

[cfam]

Interesting speech by the SECDEF today at the Air University.
(full text of speech)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24240541/

Article about the speech.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24238978/

I wouldn't really call it ripping the Air Force, but he did really stress his point about the need for change with regards to Air Force UAV use.

 

[HeyJoe]

Interesting speech by the SECDEF today at the Air University.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24240541/

SECDEF fires back on their turf...very interesting! Meanwhile their Chief of Staff is saying they're done with meaningless IAs.

 

[FlyinSpy]

I wouldn't really call it ripping the Air Force, but he did really stress his point about the need for change with regards to Air Force UAV use.

In the sterile world of DC politically correct language, that speech was the equivalent of "You guys suck. You're inertial and not on the same team. Start carrying your share of the load or there will be consequences." He heavily cited John Boyd, who was a pariah among many in the institutional AF, especially after he got out. Plus, her was talking directly to the mid-grade folks, not the senior leadership.

This was the bureaucratic equivalent of a shot across the bow; should be interesting to see how the AF responds, both overtly and behind the scenes.

 

[hscs]

The air force is done with meaningless IAs -- the organizations that they do have on the ground are so overmanned it is ridiculous -- triple the size of a CVW staff and then don't let anyone on that staff fly and you get into the ball park...you end up finding time to worry about things -- like the wrong color gym shorts while transiting to the head...

 

[HeyJoe]

Big Trouble in Air Force leadership

SECDEF firing shots across the bow of Air Force leadership already and now relevations coming to light on the two year investigation of "Thunder Vision" with charges that senior leadership attempted to influence the award of a $50M contract to friends at the 4 star level.

 

[bert]

^ I'm with HJ; the timing isn't a coincidence.

 

[bert]

The house is threatening to withhold funding for the tanker program and CSAR re-compete was delayed again (now pushed to Nov).

Oh, and they were still RIFfing the bottom of their officer corps. Bad times.

 

[Scoob]

For the kinds of challenges America faces and will face, the armed forces will need principled, creative, reform-minded leaders, men and women who, as Boyd put it, want to do something, not be somebody.

So which path would you be taking by advocating the fact that feeding the ISR monster only serves to allow the senior leadership to continue to take the decisions out of the hands of the junior officer leading the combat element on the ground, thus impeding his ability to properly develop into the kind of senior officer being advocated here???

 

[nittany03]

So which path would you be taking by advocating the fact that feeding the ISR monster only serves to allow the senior leadership to continue to take the decisions out of the hands of the junior officer leading the combat element on the ground, thus impeding his ability to properly develop into the kind of senior officer being advocated here???

At any rate, I wonder if Colonel Boyd is spinning in his grave hearing top brass use that quote to advocate their policies . . .

Ah, irony . . .

 

[a_m]

Never saw this coming.

 

[Flash]

While I agree with the SECDEF that the USAf needs to rework the way they do some business, I don't get why all of the sudden it has become a public issue. This has been going on for the past 5 years and all of a sudden it is critical? He is stuck on Predators, which I cannot really understand. And they are planning on cutting a real moneymaker for them at the same time, the U-2. Though it some people's eyes it is not, since FMV rules the day now.

I know that something is going on at the highest levels that I obviously not clued in on, but as someone who is pretty close to the ISR allocation issue I have no idea what has changed in the past few months that has Gates all riled up. I know that some here might connect the dots with all of the focus the USAF has been getting lately, but why focus on ISR? There is definitely room for improvement, like the RC-135 Rivet Joints and the most certainly the E-8 JSTARS, but I can't wrap my head around 'why now'.

 

[HeyJoe]

Global Hawks for my friends...BAMS winner announced

The Navy has announced that NGC and its RQ-4 Global Hawk was selected as the winner for the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance platform that will take some of the P-3C legacy surveillance mission tasking.